Adventure and Travel

Pinner’s Paincave: Unwrapping the Radness

· By Bike Hub Features · 0 comments

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Unveiling the Blur’s decals after today’s Stage. Photo credit: Gary Perkin.

Today was a great day. It not only marked another solid effort by Team MCL on Stage 2, but also the culmination of months’ worth of preparation that came together with this morning’s global unveiling of Santa Cruz’s all-new XC / Marathon machine, the Blur.

Since joining Rush Sports (the local distributors of Santa Cruz) towards the end of last year, the Blur’s launch has been a major goal for us. When we heard the announcement was set for March 20th, we couldn’t quite believe it. It was during the Epic!

ccs-62657-0-76774300-1521608461.jpegMy Bike started the stage blank and finished a Blur! Photo credit: Gary Perkin.

After chatting to Santa Cruz, we managed to get one or two Blurs specially shipped directly from California, which arrived in Cape Town at 01:00am on March 14th – only four days before Epic! Having collected the frame and build-kit before 6am, I screamed through to Marc Carr at East City Cycles in Harrington Street who woke up extra early to help a brother out with a skelm, pre-dawn, bike build. None of his customers could see this bike!

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With the Blur built, I had hoped to get some quality time on it during the week, however, I was massively under the pump getting stuff sorted for Epic and didn’t find the time to ride it. Eish.

Fortunately, on Saturday morning, Zone and I enjoyed an hour’s burn before registering, which allowed me to take a heavily taped-up Blur for its maiden voyage … an hour is not a lot of time but at least it gave me a chance to check if the bolts were tight! As for my setup … exact science would have to take a back seat, I was going old school. Slam it, send it and go!

ccs-62657-0-11029800-1521608464.jpegFull Gas! Photo credit: Gary Perkin.

ccs-62657-0-97683800-1521608466.jpegThe Blur is perfectly built for South Africa. Photo credit: Gary Perkin.

With the Prologue, Stage 1 and 2 conquered, the 10+ hours of rugged, unforgiving riding has given me more than enough time to get my setup dialled, as well as get to grips with the ins and the outs of this marathon specific dual sus.

Based on the last three days, the Blur has proven to be an extremely compelling addition to the local market and is more than up to the task of dominating local riding conditions.

Amidst all the action, my highlight from today’s Stage 2 was peeling off the black tape to reveal a crisp, clean, off-white Santa Cruz down-tube logo … with Zone on my wheel and one of my oldest cycling mates – Gary Perkin – alongside to capture the moment.

ccs-62657-0-63686000-1521608469.jpegMid Ride reveal as the embargo lifted. Photo credit: Gary Perkin.

It’s an absolute honour to have been given the opportunity to roll on what was an undercover frame, and in doing so play a small part in the Blur’s launch!

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